Kerala opposition calls statewide shutdown

Author: 
Mohamed Ashraf | Arab News
Publication Date: 
Fri, 2009-05-08 03:00

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress party-led opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) has called for a statewide shutdown in Kerala today protesting the government’s decision against prosecuting the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in a multimillion-rupee scam.

In February, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought the governor’s permission to prosecute Vijayan, a member of the Politburo, accusing him of wrongly awarding contracts to the SNC-Lavalin for renovation of two hydropower projects 12 years ago when he was the state’s power minister.

Gov. R.S. Gavai referred this to the state government and on Wednesday, a week before the May 13 deadline set by the High Court was to end, the state Cabinet accepted a legal opinion from its top law officer exonerating Vijayan and forwarded it to the governor.

According to the rules, the governor’s permission is necessary to prosecute a minister or a former minister for their actions as part of discharging their constitutional duties.

Advocate General C.P. Sudhakara Prasad on Saturday gave his opinion that the state government need not give sanction to prosecute Vijayan as the charges against him were not clear. He also alleged that the Chennai-based CBI team failed to make its report, running into around 12,000 pages, available for him.

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